Massey Hires Politically Connected PR Firm

The board of Massey Energy Co. – under fire from regulators and shareholders following a deadly accident at one its mines – is getting advice from a politically connected public-relations firm.

Public Strategies, an Austin, Texas-based firm owned by advertising giant WPP, has been brought in by the mining company’s board in recent days to advise it on how to respond to questions about the company’s governance and the board’s general oversight of the company, people familiar with the matter said. An explosion at the company’s Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners earlier this month.

Public Strategies’ principals include Dan Bartlett, a former White House counselor to then-President George W. Bush; Mark McKinnon, a media consultant who worked on Mr. Bush’s presidential campaigns on debates; and Jeff Eller, a former White House aide to then-President Bill Clinton.

Public Strategies also has ties to Massey’s lead outside director, retired Navy Admiral Bobby Inman, a longtime professor at the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, which is supported by the LBJ Foundation; Public Strategies’ chairman Jack Martin – a longtime Democratic Party hand – is a foundation board member, and McKinnon is a lecturer at the LBJ School…